View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by CLoK Article A retrospective analysis of trick progression in elite freeskiing and snowboarding Willmott, T., and Collins, D. Available at http://clok.uclan.ac.uk/17065/ Willmott, T., and Collins, D. ORCID: 0000-0002-7601-0454 (2017) A retrospective analysis of trick progression in elite freeskiing and snowboarding. International Sport Coaching Journal, 4 (1). pp. 1-12. ISSN 2328-918X It is advisable to refer to the publisher’s version if you intend to cite from the work. http://dx.doi.org/10.1123/iscj.2016-0003 For more information about UCLan’s research in this area go to http://www.uclan.ac.uk/researchgroups/ and search for <name of research Group>. For information about Research generally at UCLan please go to http://www.uclan.ac.uk/research/ All outputs in CLoK are protected by Intellectual Property Rights law, including Copyright law. Copyright, IPR and Moral Rights for the works on this site are retained by the individual authors and/or other copyright owners. Terms and conditions for use of this material are defined in the http://clok.uclan.ac.uk/policies/ CLoK Central Lancashire online Knowledge www.clok.uclan.ac.uk Running head: Trick progression in freeskiing and snowboarding A retrospective analysis of trick progression in elite Freeskiing and Snowboarding Tom Willmott1* & Dave Collins2 1Snowsports New Zealand 2Institute of Coaching and Performance, University of Central Lancashire, UK Abstract This study offered a first examination of skill development within freeskiing and snowboarding, using semi-structured interviews to examine trick progression. Participants were purposefully recruited as performing at world top 8 level in 2014, the most recent Winter Olympic Games. A semi structured interview protocol, using a personalized progress chart, enabled the examination of trick progression across disciplines, with at least one participant from each of the events represented at the Games.Trick progression was achieved intermittently, moving through different stages during the year subject to experiencing the right conditions, training facilities, balancing time for progression with time for consolidation, competition periods and rehabilitating from injuries. There was high variance in the duration of trick progression between individuals and also high variance in the number of repetitions required in order to land a trick in competition. Imagery was a mental skill widely used and universally supported by our sample. Athletes and coaches should take directionality into consideration when planning their progression, ensuring all four directions are included and that pre-requisite manoeuvres are included in an athlete’s training repertoire at the right stage in order to facilitate the learning of more complex manoeuvres at a later stage of development. Our data found a 60-40 balance between time-spent training on and off-snow, further research is required to determine the best combination of traditional strength and conditioning versus movement conditioning approaches, both from an injury prevention and a performance enhancement perspective. Keywords: training modalities, directionality, skill acquisition, Olympic, quadrennial, A retrospective analysis of trick progression in elite Freeskiing and Snowboarding In an earlier paper, we highlighted the tensions inherent in the new Olympic disciplines of slopestyle and half-pipe freeskiing and snowboarding (Willmott & Collins, 2015). Specifically, the training challenge–athlete health balance was considered: a usual issue for most sports but a particular one for these high-risk disciplines. In this regard, Kotler (2014, p. vii) emphasizes the recent “unprecedented flowering of human potential” that has occurred over the past three decades in the action and adventure sport domain, and cites the recent and profound progression of competitive freeskiers and snowboarders amongst big-wave surfers, mountaineers, free divers and whitewater kayakers as extreme examples of the pursuit of ultimate human performance. The comparative youth of the sports themselves, plus the recent changes to commitment and training patterns generated by the move from lifestyle/adventure activity to Olympic sport status, have added to the need for insight into skill progression. Specifically, a comparative dearth of investigation, together with this recent but powerful change, has effectively negated what little data were already available (e.g. Collins, Collins & Willmott, 2016). Such information is essential to the coach for effective planning, monitoring, and direction of athlete progression (cf. Plisk & Stone, 2003), and so this lack is a significant issue. For example, and as just a few of many considerations, what are the levels of psycho-emotional loading which characterize elite athletes’ development in this high-risk environment? How might differences in the developmental template across individuals inform and enhance practice? Accordingly, in order to inform coaches on the safe but optimum progression of athletes in these sports, a current and detailed picture is required. Providing further complication, evolution in the sport has resulted in an increased variety of training approaches and modalities, combined in a number of permutations and schedules. As a result, athletes and coaches have tended to either follow the anecdotal/biographical accounts of established elite athletes, or to be overly influenced by the waves of new but unspecific sport science support now available to move towards an apparently well-structured but, so far, evidence-light schedule. Once again, the need for clear and concise data is clear. Finally, and from a more theoretical perspective, the range of challenge inherent to the sport offers opportunity to examine the style of technical development across elements, thus supporting the picture in similar sports. For example, do athletes and coaches push ahead with technical difficulty in one direction or axis only, building on their inherent strengths and preferences at the expense of others? Or, in contrast, and especially based on a recent focus on variety in the judging criteria, is a more holistic (left and right, upright, corked and flipped rotations, forwards and backwards approaches) developmental pathway more effective? Based on these important but unanswered questions, the first objective of this exploratory and descriptive study was to gain a retrospective and in-depth understanding of trick progression (technical skill acquisition and refinement) of elite freeski and snowboard athletes over the last Olympic quadrennial. We were particularly interested in the time course and number of repetitions during a tricks’ development from initiation through practice trials to incorporation in high-level competition, and the pace of overall development (including fast and slow periods). The level of perceived challenge experienced when training through the various stages was a key and integral consideration. Additionally, we were interested in identifying factors that promoted progression: training aids, cognitive skills used and elements such as specific versus general transfer (for example developing a new trick based on pre-requisite manoeuvres versus general movement ability required to progress). Directionality (the variety of directions and axes that tricks can be performed in) was a further focus area, along with an investigation into the level of planning for progression, and the impact of the Olympics on planning and embedding a competition run (Carson & Collins, 2016). In a new and rapidly changing sport, with limited attention in the literature to date, we identified a useful and important opportunity to inform a clear picture of an elite athlete’s daily training environment. Given an understanding of the ‘what’ of trick progression in objective 1, the second objective was to increase understanding of the ‘how’ of trick progression. Determining the relative weighting (in terms of time and effort) which athletes placed on different training modalities, including on and off snow components provides information on the current balance of training, which in turn underpins coaches decision making in order to optimize their athlete’s progression. Across both objectives, we aimed to provide practical implications and considerations for athletes, coaches, support staff, and high-performance programmes to help achieve their goals of athletic, major event, and Olympic success. Method Participants Eight elite athletes (Mage = 22.5 years, SD = 3.42) from New Zealand and the United Kingdom along with their respective national coaches, (N=5; Mage = 38.8 years, SD = 10.83) were purposively selected into a stratified sample, with at least both one male and one female athlete engaged in each of the three new Olympic disciplines: freeski halfpipe, freeski slopestyle, and snowboard slopestyle. All athletes represented their country at the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics, where six achieved top-10 results, the two remaining athletes were injured at Sochi, but have since achieved major event podium results. To maintain participant confidentiality, athletes’ demographics are kept deliberately brief (Table 1). Athletes were recruited by contacting their coaches and National Sport Organisations (NSOs) and requesting their involvement in the study. Coaches were invited to assist their athletes in recalling their progression over the past four years, and to improve trustworthiness in the data